You're welcome :)

That is correct.

Award Availability is dynamic and at the discretion of the airline.

It is not uncommon for Award Availability to become available closer to departure, but there are no guarantees.

Not really.

The bug relates to the CrossOver product only, so you can use of the other Mac solutions:
http://Help.KVSTool.com/#Mac

I recently became a Diamond member and have tried to do my homework to understand how
to use the tool. After signing up and running the registration program I found a KVS Availability
icon on my desktop. Clicking on it opens a window where I can key in the Method, From/To, Date etc.
I am trying to find Award/Upgrade space for Business class on British Airways for July or
August 2013 but I can find no where to enter the number of seats I am looking for on the tool.

I have checked numerous dates too to see if I can get any results and every entry for every
date has returned One World Cabin Search: None. That makes me feel like possibly the
program isn't working or I am doing something wrong.

For reference here is what I am keying in:

Method Amadeus: Awards/BA-OneWorld
From: SEA
To: LHR
Date: Various dates in July & Aug 2013
Airlines: BA British Airways
Cabin: Business
Sort By: Airlines

As I said I can see no place to select the number of seats. When I first tried to search I was
required to key in my BA Executive Club information and I do see it under the Settings tab.

I am using Win 7 FYI.

So if someone has some insights and could guide me in the right direction I would really appreciate it.

It's more than likely that there's just no availability. I'm just another punter and not a KVS person but your settings look right to me.

To be sure, I'd change the "Cabin(s):" selection to "All". If you pick Jul 1 2013 for example, you should see "YS9" (at least 9 seats in economy). Do you get that?

I still get No Award Availability so there must be a problem somewhere.

That's odd. Have a look at this screen to confirm we are running the same check.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/20767940/KV...2013.54.34.png

[QUOTE=golfmad;19158502]That's odd. Have a look at this screen to confirm we are running the same check.

My screen is exactly like yours, although I wasn't able to capture it and post mine like you did. I still get zero returns.

Under Availability I get: No Award Availability/Route Too Complex

Hard to understand where the problem is. I really do appreciate your willingness to help. BTW where can I key in seats requested?

I'm sure a KVS representative will be along soon to tell us both why :confused:

In relation to the seats requested/required, different methods have different inputs. This one that we're using for BA doesn't have one. It just responds back with the number available. Other methods for use with other airlines have a box where you say what you need (e.g. 2 seats) and it comes back with a yes/no answer.

[QUOTE=atanac;19158840]

Could you please provide a screenshot via http://Contact.KVSTool.com/?

P.S. golfmad: Thanks for helping atanac ^

[QUOTE=KVS;19159455]Could you please provide a screenshot via http://Contact.KVSTool.com/?/QUOTE]

Sent. Thanks for the help.

The extra Y Award Availability in your screenshot is for Elite BAEC members only (according to your profile you are BAEC Gold).

Otherwise, there is no Award Availability (this can be confirmed more explicitly via the [Awards/JL-OneWorld] Method):

[KVS Availability Tool 7.0.3/Diamond - Axess: Awards/JL-OneWorld]

Well spotted. I hadn't thought of that.

So in answer to the OP's original question, there's just little or no availability?

[QUOTE=KVS;19159892]The extra Y Award Availability in your screenshot is for Elite BAEC members only (according to your profile you are BAEC Gold).

Sorry but I do not understand what you mean. My screenshot indicated "All"
in the Cabin field so I don't know what you mean by "The extra Y". I have changed the
different cabin types yet still get No Award Availability.

Am I unable to search using the Method I choose?

Hi atanac, BA make extra economy ('Y' class) seats available to members with gold card status. The KVS representative was pointing out that I was seeing the extra availability because I'm a gold card holder. If you're not a gold card holder or have not entered your gold card number into the KVS tool you won't see those redemption seats.

This means that it's almost certain that you're doing the right search it's just that there's limited or no availability for the dates you're interested in. I'm just seeing some extra economy.

I'd forgotten (again) about that gold BA benefit although I don't think I'd ever use it for a transatlantic journey. Pity they don't make extra premium seats available for gold status :( Now that would be useful.

Hope that helps.

[QUOTE=atanac;19160627]

[QUOTE=golfmad;19161018]Hi atanac, BA make extra economy ('Y' class) seats available to members with gold card status. The KVS representative was pointing out that I was seeing the extra availability because I'm a gold card holder. If you're not a gold card holder or have not entered your gold card number into the KVS tool you won't see those redemption seats.

This means that it's almost certain that you're doing the right search it's just that there's limited or no availability for the dates you're interested in. I'm just seeing some extra economy.

I'd forgotten (again) about that gold BA benefit although I don't think I'd ever use it for a transatlantic journey. Pity they don't make extra premium seats available for gold status :( Now that would be useful.

Hope that helps.

Thanks golfmad...you've been great trying to help me with this. I see what you mean now
that the KVS rep was speaking to you and not me about the extra Y availability. I guess they are going to
come back to me via an email since they asked me to send them a screenshot at
their web contact email. For the record I have a Blue membership with BA. I just wish I could get
any result from a search on the KVS tool so I could be sure it is actually working. Hopefully
they will give me a sample search that will show some availabilty for a Blue membership.
That way I can be assured it's working for me.

Here is a sample search with Standard Award Availability:

[KVS Availability Tool 7.0.3/Diamond - Amadeus: Awards/BA-OneWorld]
If you would feel more comfortable seeing the lack of Award Availability more explicitly, you can use the [Awards/JL-OneWorld] Method instead.

BA's website shows at least 2 business class seats SEA-LHR on July 23,24, 29 and 30. It's too early to check on August availability yet.

And the KVS tool shows 5 seats on the 23rd, 2 on the 24th. Haven't checked any other dates. Atanac, you should be able to see these too.

Whew! Finally...I am seeing the results as posted above. Odd to think that I never stumbled
upon any of those dates while changing to different ones in my sample searches.
Thanks again to golfman, KVS rep & JIMCHI for the hand holding.

I will be searching for a flight to London Heathrow departing from Seattle on August 27, 2013. That
date will be available to book on BA's website next month on September 5th. Then my returning
flight from London on September 7, 2013 will be available to book on September 16, 2012.

When you say... "it's too early to check for August"... were you saying BA usually doesn't load award
seats when a flight first becomes available for reservations? Since I can now see some award space
for next July yet none for those flights in August that are now open, it seems like you believe August 2013
Biz awards may not be up until a month after bookings open.

Do I have that right?

BA starts taking reservations for revenue flights 355 days in advance, so at the moment that is for flights about August 11, 2013. I have noticed that transatlantic award seats become available 321 days in advance, although there are some occasional odd exceptions where one or two dates become available before then. It's best to check using the BA website and search for award seats, as it will give you availability over a whole month.

Thanks JIMCHI. I was hoping to use the KVS tool rather than BA's website to search for available
space each day when a new set of revenue flights open up for reservations. At least I won't be
surprised if I do not see any award seats in Business for a few weeks after my flights show up.

Help KVS!

I've just renewed my subscription for another 6 months, but I've managed to renew at the wrong level, (platinum not Diamond)
Can I somehow paypal you an extra $10 and get the Diamond level as I need some of the features it offers.

Not a problem -- we have now corrected this for you.
Please check your E-Mail Inbox.

Perfect, thanks for that.... however I'm straight back with another issue.

searching for a WT+ return flight from London to Dubai
Outbound Sept 21, inbound Dec 18th

KVS fare search shows T class (WT+) fares at 290gbp with code TAPUK9
reading the fare rules shows no reason why that fare shouldn't be bookable with my dates
Checking availability with both sabre and galileo shows T class fares available (T=5 on the flight I want)

Yet the matrix search shows no flights available.... am I missing something again (I'm really sorry if so!)

KVS -- not sure this is entirely an appropriate question for you, but if it's an issue you've come across and have any ideas, they would be most appreciated.

The issue is searching for IB award availability bookable with partner (e.g., AA or BA) miles. "Amadeus: Awards/OneWorld" often shows availability that cannot be seen by using "Amadeus: Awards/BA -- OneWorld". Similarly, "Galileo: Availability/ETR" seems to show award booking classes ("U") that cannot be seen either using "Awards/BA -- OnewWorld" or when calling AA. I think that availability shown using Galileo Availability largely tracks the QF.com search and Awards/OneWorld, but actually not always.

In the Qantas forum, I posed a question about whether the QF inventory was phantom inventory, and they responded with speculation that IB is coding its awards to only be sellable for certain points of sale -- making it available to Australia frequent fliers, but not American or British. I have no idea if that's correct. It's a bit hard to get hard data by calling AA because it's so time consuming, but it's pretty clear that AA and BA do not see all "U" award space that KVS sees in Galileo.

So, long winded windup, but do you have a sense of which KVS search method is best to find inventory that has a good chance of being bookable using AA miles?

I personally always use BA method when searching for space bookable using AA miles. QF often does have phantom inventory.

KVS - Multi-city woes

Love the product but I'm having trouble. I want to travel NYC - DEN - MUC - NYC and tried Sabre NYC - MUC R/T with the [VIA] option, but that was a no-go.

What's the correct method?

http://i49.tinypic.com/34qqq0z.jpg

Thanks.

-TB

ITA does show flights for that Fare. Are you double-clicking the TAPUK9 Fare and using the [ITA Query Builder]?

Please see the reply in the http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qanta...l#post19185876 Thread.

You would need to search using:

NYC-MUC [Via] DEN, then MUC-NYC
- or -
NYC-DEN, then DEN-MUC, then MUC-NYC

Amadeus enhanced seat map
 

I am wondering why amadeus enhanced seat map since a while is not working properly. It showing only questionmarks on all seats. Any idea how to fix that?

Multi-city Woes
 

Still doing something wrong:

http://i49.tinypic.com/34qqq0z.jpg

Isn't this your suggestion?

Thanks!

-TB

There are no direct flights between DEN-MUC and very limited flights between NYC-DEN, so you would need to check each segment separately:

NYC-DEN, then DEN-MUC, then MUC-NYC

Welcome to FT!

This issue has now been resolved -- please download KVS Tool V7.04.

Thank you for resolving that quick!

OK.... I must be doing this wrong.

I'm running the query in KVS under Sabre on the fares tab
this returns the TAPUK9 fare

I'm then right clicking it and selecting "find flights using this fare ITA"

That opens a new "matrix search" window

I then fill that form out, inputting

depart = LHR
copy the fare code into the next box = LON :: /F BA.LON+DXB.TAPUK9
destination = DXB
fare code = DXB :: /F BA.LON+DXB.TAPUK9
outbound date = 9/21
return date 12/18
Adults = 1
Cheapest available

Hit search

No fares available every time.

I've mailed you a screenshot as well, just so you can see what I see

Thanks for all the help, I apologise for being useless!!

ITA will auto-fill the "next box" automatically --
All you only need to enter is:

Departing From: LON :: /F BA.LON+DXB.TAPUK9
Destination: DXB :: /F BA.LON+DXB.TAPUK9

I was doing it wrong!!

Thanks for clearing that up.... unfortuantely it seems the prices the KVS tool displays are without taxes, but it's great to be able to use the tool properly.

Thanks again for the assist.

Can you please point me to (or repost) the specific instructions on how to change the time-out setting, as I can't seem to find it?

There you go: